Abstract
The nonlinear nature of the transport equations that govern the drying process highlights in evidence the applicability of numerical simulation in this field. This work is devoted to presenting a 3D drying of facing brick that is able to explain the coupled heat and mass transfer during drying of porous media from two perspectives: the theory and industrial practice. A three-dimensional unstructured Control Volume Finite Element Method (CVFEM) has been developed in order to simulate unsteady coupled heat and mass transfer phenomena that arise during convective drying of unsaturated porous media. In order to simulate 3D complex geometries, applied here in drying facing brick, we used the free mesh generator Gmsh. Several simulation results that depict the new possibilities offered by such a tool are presented and analyzed. Indeed, thanks to this 3D tool and unlike the 2D model, we can observe for the first time an unexpected thermal field, liquid saturation and pressure distributions for facing brick at the industrial scale and hence evaluate the correct drying rate under the real conditions.